1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to initiating associations and more particularly relates to acceleration initiated associations.
2. Description of the Related Art
Wireless communications protocols such the BLUETOOTH® communications protocol maintained by the Bluetooth SIG, Inc. of Washington, D.C. or 802.11 communications protocol maintained by the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) of New York, N.Y. are often used for communications between electronic devices. For example, a laptop computer may communicate with a printer using the BLUETOOTH® communications protocol, allowing the laptop computer to print documents at the printer.
Typically, two or more electronic devices must be associated before useful communications can take place. As used herein, electronic devices are associated when each device is configured to communicate with the other device and/or devices using a specified wireless communications protocol. For example, each electronic device may register an identifier of the other electronic device(s) in order to establish the association. In addition, associated electronic devices may share a secret such as a passkey.
Unfortunately, because of the increasing popularity of wireless electronic devices, there are often numerous other electronic devices within communications range of a first electronic device. As a result, the first electronic device may be presented with many association options. For example, a user of a laptop computer may be presented with the option of associating the laptop with a personal printer, several office printers, a neighboring personal printer, a wireless mouse, the user's cellular telephone, cellular telephones in neighboring offices, other laptop computers, and the like. The user may have difficulty identifying and associating only a desired electronic device, such as the wireless mouse, with the laptop computer.